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| Chokolade: Strange or Strangest Heroine Name Ever? |
This was a pretty raw and tawdry little bodice ripper, though I thought it suffered from a bit of plot misdirection which had the hero completely vanish for the vast middle of the story. But in its place was a rather interesting picture of the late 19th century Austro-Hungarian Empire, with the doomed Crown Prince Rudolf as a significant character.
The story starts out with Chokolade and her gypsy clan camped out on the Hungarian plain as winter sets in. They'd be on the move already except her brother Gyuri is doing the horizontal mambo with a local countess and he won't leave. One night when Chokolade and Gyuri are at the castle putting on their smokin' hot dance show for the amusement of the local aristocrats, everything goes to hell and the two gypsies are forced to flee. But one of the guests, a Hussar captain called Sandor St. Pal, runs Chokolade to ground, rapes her repeatedly, and holds her prisoner in his quarters with all intents of ditching her when he gets sick of her.
But Chokolade isn't putting up with that crap and escapes with Gyuri to Budapest, where she becomes a famed dancer in the nightclubs and cafes. From here on out, Chokolade is in for a roller coaster of love and loss and sadistic hurt from the nasty-ass Viennese royal court. She does get her HEA, but is it ever long in coming.
Like I said, the hero Sandor vanishes from page 138 to 307. The heroine despises him but can't ever forget him and, of course, has weird feelings of love and passion for him. I thought that Crown Prince Rudolf was a far more interesting character but, alas, history has other plans for him so no happy ending from that quarter. But he gives the heroine some growth and food for thought in matters of the heart, as does his mother Empress Elizabeth (also destined for ill fortune). The romance part fell by the wayside here, but the hypocrisy of the Austrian aristocracy and the clash between the Austrian and the Hungarian elements of the empire was very interesting. The stuff that is the bread and butter of all those fluffy operettas was here, but so was the dark underbelly of it. Chokolade's marriage to an Austrian aristocrat was packed full of abuse and nastiness so that Sandor's callous rapey assholery actually looked like TLC.
I much preferred Ellis' other book The Last Carnival, but this one was still a worthwhile read. This period of history isn't the subject of many romances. I found it a good companion piece to Christine Monson's Surrender the Night, which takes place during an earlier attempt by Hungary to throw off Austrian rule. The conflict is still alive here forty years later, but the resistance is pretty raggedy and beaten.
If you like mean heroes and high dwama, it's worth a read. Sandor reminded me a lot of Prince Nikki from Susan Johnson's Seized by Love. Unfortunately, he might not be in the story enough to make it worth your time.
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